I’ve tried really hard to learn over the years to stop myself from making mistakes due to impatience. The challenge is real, and it still continues to this day. I may average an event like this at least once a year, if not every 6-months or so.
A few days ago I desperately needed to access an old external HDD that required a power brick that I didn’t have any longer. I looked around but couldn’t find one, so I became frustrated. I figured that if I were to damage the drive, it could be in my best interest since that would prevent me from wasting more time should I actually get access. I would potentially be searching for a 1GB needle in a 3TB haystack using something as arduous as Testdisk. Maybe if the drive malfunctioned, I would save myself time?
It probably goes without saying that:
- I did something that I shouldn’t have done.
- I did something that I knew ran the risk of destroying the device.
- I did it anyways.
- I let all the smoke out of my HDD.
As exciting and utterly predictable as the outcome was, I was surprisingly undeterred. It turns out I could have bought the power supply for less than $5 on Amazon and waited a few more days.
Also undeterred, I decided to poke at the drive to find out what really went wrong. If nothing else I knew I had to dissect the drive to destroy the platters and claim the magnets. It was very exciting when I spotted something on the board that clearly cooked. I didn’t recognize what that part did, after all I’m not an electrical engineer, or even a skilled hobbyist. So I did what any self-taught fool would, and I searched Google for the part number on the device.
It turns out I am not the only person to make this stupid mistake with an external HDD. That’s cool.
And it turns out that the piece is a Transient Voltage Suppressor (TVS) diode. A very nice to have, but actually unnecessary piece to the HDD. The purpose of the TVS is to protect the remaining components of the system from a sustained over-voltage event. It may be oversimplification, but the TVS acts a lot like the old-school fuses that would blow in my mom’s ’74 Ford. The fix to my problem? Just remove the TVS! Removing the TVS permanently is not recommended, since the HDD now has no protection against a sustained over-voltage event. I’m grateful I have a fairly robust UPS that has a built-in line conditioner and should be cleaning up the voltage before it gets to the HDD. To be clear I will fix this, but not until I have found that file I am missing.
To make a long story short, I have caused myself significantly more work than I would have had I been patient and just bought the $5 adapter and waited. I know get the great opportunity to buy an $0.80 part to fix my old HDD. Why would I do this? A 3TB HDD is still respectable and is better fixed than discarded.
This post represents the first time I’m going to try and catalog my mistakes that are made through impatience. Since the time before this was when I melted a server, and the time before that was a catastrophic failure of a software component, I’m very curious what my next iteration will be. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed it will cause less work, also cost $0.80, and be entirely preventable if I stop and remember that it will take more time to fix than simply being patient and waiting for the mail.